Leading the global fight against sports competition manipulation

As sports competition manipulation remained widespread in many sports around the world, ULIS advanced global efforts to combat match fixing and maintain sports integrity to support and protect stakeholders and the reputation of the global lottery, sports and sports betting ecosystem.  

It led monitoring work with partners for major sports events, for instance, with Conmebol for the 2024 Copa America, UEFA for the EURO 2024, and the IOC for the Summer Olympic Games.

Rolling out enhanced tools and services

Over the course of the year ULIS enhanced its tools and services incorporating the latest technologies available, to successfully combat increasingly advanced sports competition manipulation.

New features added to its proprietary one-stop integrity platform:  

• Provide added value content and knowledge to support member integrity across the board

• Involve lotteries in operational activities, thereby improving the network  

• Facilitate cooperation with diverse stakeholders for exchanging information related to sports integrity issues.  

This led to improved daily operations through a more robust database, larger market coverage of over 20 sports and 900,000 events. The platform upgrades provided integrated in-play protection, and model-based alerts, which resulted in more data and knowledge for sharing with the global sports and sports betting ecosystem.  

In addition to its member, ULIS shared its reports, data and intel compiled from the platform with sports federations and public authorities. This content may be used to support law enforcement agencies or judicial authorities with their investigations.

Training and Education

Training and education are key to raising awareness of the issues that threaten sports integrity and successfully tackling them.  

ULIS actively participated in the IntegriSport 3 project (2023-2024), co-funded by the EU under the Erasmus+ Sport funding scheme, which concluded in November. This involved developing the materials and providing training to the participating law enforcement agencies from Austria, Bulgaria, Estonia, Greece, Romania and Spain, as well as sharing key knowledge and expertise on betting and non-betting competition manipulation, and sports betting monitoring.  

The ULIS 2024 Integrity Seminar, supported by the Olympic Movement Unit on the Prevention of the Manipulation of Competitions, was held in Lausanne in November. The two-day event brought together representatives from lotteries, law enforcement, sports organizations, regulators, and experts from the five continents, and explored key topics that continue to shape sports betting and integrity. Discussions focused on leveraging new technologies, enhancing collaboration, sharing best practices, and introducing innovative educational tools to elevate sports integrity.

ULIS launched its Educational Program (EdULIS) with materials for awareness raising and education. Diverse audiences can get a deeper understanding of the complex and diverse aspects of sports competition manipulation. It comprises training sessions, curriculum development, research, project collaboration, and educational resources.  

The EdULIS toolkit presentations, insight summaries, videos and image cards explain: why lotteries should combat sports competition manipulation, how to go about it, and what tools and help are available from ULIS. Eight EduKits deal with specific topics, including research, policies, best practices, and data.